Apedemek | |||||||
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Nubian Lion God of War | |||||||
![]() Votive Plaque of King Tanyidamani and Apedemak, The Naqa kiosk, Excavation by John Garstang, 1909-1910, in the Temple of Apedemak, Meroe | |||||||
Name in hieroglyphs |
Apedemak Jprmk | ||||||
Major cult center | Lion Temple, Naqa | ||||||
Consort | Amesemi | ||||||
Equivalents | |||||||
Roman equivalent | Jupiter |
Apedemak or Apademak (originally, due to the absence of the /p/ phoneme in Meroitic, it was probably pronounced 'abedemak' [1]) was a major deity in the ancient Nubian and Kushite pantheon. Often depicted as a figure with a male human torso and a lion head, Apedemak was a war god worshiped by the Meroitic peoples inhabiting Kush. He has no Egyptian counterpart.[2] As a war god, Apedemak came to symbolize martial power, military conquest, and empire. Apedemak is also closely associated with Amun, the state-sponsored Egyptian deity during the preceding Napatan period, and is assumed to hold an equal level of importance.
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